


Romance is for Loosers

by Acexual_Attorney



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Collegestuck, Genderqueer Character, M/M, Queerplatonic Relationships, Smoking, gamkar - Freeform, im not creative and bad at titles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-05-15 00:38:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5765032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acexual_Attorney/pseuds/Acexual_Attorney
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Follow me at <a href="http://supertrashwrite.tumblr.com/">supertrashwrite</a> and send me prompts</p></blockquote>





	Romance is for Loosers

"Karkat get the fuck up," a pillow hit Karkat square in the face, causing the redhead to grumble in disdain.

Karkat took the pillow off his head and looked over at the bed-side clock. It read 7:43 in glowing green numbers.

"Shit!" he shouted, jumping out of bed and bolting to the bathroom. "Why didn't you guys get me up sooner?!" He yelled at his two roommates, quickly running a brush through his hair and running his toothbrush under the tap.

"W-we tried to get you up half and hour ago, but you refused to budge," Eridan picked at the dirt under his nails and leaned against the door frame of the bathroom.

"Bullshit, you were probably too busy making out with lisp boy," Karkat sneered as he shoved the toothbrush in his mouth.

"My litho ithn't that bad!" Sollux shouted from the kitchen while Eridan blushed.

"Our ability to get your lazy ass out of bed has no correlation with our physical contact with one another," Eridan protested, twisting one of the rings on his finger.

"What the fuck ever," Karkat mumbled as he spit into the sink and pushed past Eridan and into his bedroom.

Shit, he didn't have any clean clothes. Well, that black shirt on the floor will do, and the jacket on the door might be able to cover the nasty stain on the sleeve. Now all he needs are pants. There should be some around here.... Yes! There they are!

Karkat quickly put on the pair of khakis and shoved his feet into his shoes before running into the kitchen. The clock above the oven read 7:56. Okay, he still had nine minutes before his class started.

Karkat quickly poured himself a cup of coffee into a to-go cup and added the necessary sugar and creamer so the beverage didn't taste like a cat's ass.

"Hey, Karkat, before you go, can you lithten to thith for me?" Sollux asked. Sollux was majoring in computer programming and game design, and the assignment over summer break was to create a 30-minute long looping track to be the adventuring music to a game they would design this year, so it wasn't exactly uncommon for Sollux to randomly ask if for people to listen to the small advances they made in the 8-bit music.

"Fine," Karkat sighed, taking the earbuds offered to him and waiting for Sollux to press play.

"We're no strangers to loooooove."

"Fuck you, Sollux," Karkat deadpanned and took the earbuds out, throwing them at Sollux before running out the door.

He was going to be late, he was going to be late, he was going to be late, he was-

"Woah there Karkat, where's Wiley Coyote," a smug voice said from not far away.

Great, just great. The world has something against Karkat today.

"What do you want?" Karkat asked, looking at Dave and Jade, more particularly at Dave, who had made the sarcastic comment.

"What we can't talk to one of our friends?" Jade asked, faking hurt feeling.

"Listen, I have to get to class in," Karkat looked at the watch on his wrist, "4 minutes, and if I don't get there in time, I will hurt everyone who stopped me from getting there."

"Who cares if you get there in time, its college, no one cares," Dave scoffed.

Karkat looked at Dave for a full five second before taking Dave's aviators and (gently) placed them on the concrete as calmly as a 5'4" man full of rage could. Karkat ignored Dave's complaints and Jade's laughter as he once again sped off to the correct building.

Fucking finally. Karkat was able to get in his class and get in his seat exactly one minute and 23 seconds before 8:05. Best thing is, he got a seat with no one else next to him. Praise fucking Jesus.

"Okay, class, this is Art Study Level 2, so if you're in the wrong class, please leave now or forever hold your peace," the professor said, pausing for a second to let students leave if they needed. Not surprisingly, two or three students got out of their seats and left. It happened almost every year and Karkat had no fucking idea why.

"Anyone else? No? Okay good. On your desk should be a syllabus of what I expect from you this year along with the required supplies and projects we will do. I will give you ten minutes to read it over."

Karkat was done reading the syllabus in seven minutes and he was absolutely livid. It was required to have a $30 sketch pad? What the fuck? That's way too much money and Karkat was going to have none of it. He may be a good student, but he was not going to stand for this.

Karkat's internal ranting was rudely interrupted by the door to the classroom opening. He looked up to see a rather tall kid with very messy, curly purple hair and dark, almost black skin, and.. Was that face paint? Jesus Christ, the weirdos Karkat gets stuck with in class.

The guy mad his way to a seat and sat... Directly. Next. To. Karkat.

Of course he would.

"Okay, if everyone is here now," the teacher looked pointedly at the kid next to Karkat, "does anyone have any questions regarding the syllabus?"

Karkat raised his hand. The teacher gestured for him to talk.

"Yeah, uh, why the fuck do we have to pay thirty fucking dollars for a sketch pad?" Karkat snapped.

The teacher frowned, "Well, the pad you buy should be good quality for this class, and you shouldn't have a problem payed thirty dollars to have it."

"First off: Bullshit," Karkat objected, "You can get quality sketchpads for five dollars at Walmart. Secondly, not everyone here has money pouring out of their goddamn ears. I don't know about you, but thirty dollars means me and my roommates can have a proper meal instead of eating ramen noodles and pop-tarts for five days. Maybe you can stop being a classist piece of shit and realize that," Karkat crossed his arms and looked at the teacher pointedly, waiting for her to respond.

Her frown deepened, "Very well then, if you cannot afford the required materials, buy what you can."

The teacher broke the silence in the classroom by dropping the subject and starting her lesson. Sadly, Karkat was unable to pay attention because the guy next to him started talking.

"Hey, bro, that was pretty motherfuckin' cool what you just did," the guy looked at Karkat with bloodshot eyes. Was this dude high?

"Uh, yeah, whatever," Karkat grumbled, trying to pay attention to the lesson.

"My name's Gamzee Makara," the guy smiled and held his hand out to Karkat.

Karkat looked back over at Gamzee and /definitely/ didn't blush because the clown had a very adorable lopsided grin.

"Karkat Vantas," Karkat said and took Gamzee's hand, shaking it once, then dropping it. The two actually started paying attention to class with Karkat making sarcastic quips, making Gamzee laugh quietly behind the professor's back.

Over the course of the week, Karkat decided he liked making Gamzee laugh. When Gamzee tried to be quiet laughing he would bite on his tongue and get the dopiest lopsided smile Karkat's ever seen, and the actual noise of the laugh was light and breathy. When he wasn't trying to be quiet, his laughs would be loud, and make his entire body vibrate with his deep chuckles.

Gamzee liked making Karkat laugh too. He would always get a silly little smile, and roll his eyes while snorting through his nose. Sometimes his shoulders would bounce up and down if whatever Gamzee did was a real kicker.

It was nearing the end of the week, Karkat was in Art Study Level 2 and Gamzee was late. Again. In the two weeks they had been in college, Gamzee had showed up to class anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes late. When he did arrive (17 minutes late), his eyes were bloodshot from probably smoking drugs. Shocker.

"Hey, Karbro," Gamzee whispered, leaning over towards Karkat.

"What, Gamzee. Ask away, I mean, it's not like I'm in the middle of learning something," Karkat said, side glancing at Gamzee.

"Do ya wanna come to my dorm this weekend? We can play some radical video games and hang and shit," Gamzee grinned at Karkat. Damn him and his adorable smile.

"Yeah, sure, what dorm do you live in?" Karkat asked sliding his notebook over so Gamzee could write down the required information.

"FlOoR 2B rOoM 57. SaTuRdAy At 2:15. Be ThErE oR bE sQuArE :O)" he wrote in his messy scrawl. Karkat read the note then smiled at Gamzee, nodding his head to indicate that yes, he was going, and no, he was not square.

 

At exactly 2:13 on Saturday evening, Karkat arrive on floor 2B, room 57. Gamzee opened the door before Karkat could knock and ushered him into the small dormitory.

"Welcome to mi casa," Gamzee smiled as he gestured to the dorm that Karkat was able to see, which was only the small kitchen and living room that was separated by a bar. The first thing Karkat noticed, however, was the fact that Gamzee wasn't wearing his usual face paint. Instead, there were three scars dragged across his face. One went from the far right corner of his forehead, over his left eye, and ended just above his left cheek. Another started at his right temple, over his right eye and nose, and ended just below his left cheek. The last one started on his right cheek, went below his nose, and ended just before his jaw. All three scars were perfectly parallel with one another. All Karkat could wonder is what happened to him, but Karkat wasn't rude enough to ask, so he tried his best to ignore them and sat down beside Gamzee on the couch as they played Portal 2.

They were doing fairly well with Gamzee just fucking around while Karkat told him when and where to place his portal. They had gotten far and were now on the last level, which was very hard, let me tell you.

They would be actually making progress in the game if it wasn't for the fact that Gamzee was getting so goddamn fidgety.

"Gamzee, what the fuck is wrong?" Karkat asked as Gamzee's fingers twitched, causing him to misplace the portal.

"Aw, sorry, bro, I haven't had a smoke in a while and I'm just- I couldn't make the house smell like weed when one of my best motherfuckin' bros was comin' over," Gamzee twitched again. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to realize that Gamzee had an addiction with the way he was fidgeting around.

"I don't fucking care if you smoke around me," Karkat scoffed, tossing down his controller.

"Really?" Gamzee asked in surprise, "I know my roommate doesn't motherfuckin' like it when I get stoned around 'im. Are ya sure ya don't mind?"

"Does it look like I care?" Karkat asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Thanks, bro," Gamzee smiled, getting up from his seat to disappear into his room, emerging soon with a bong, a lighter, and a small bag of probably pot.

Gamzee put some of the probably pot into the bowl, then put the slide into the bong. With one hand, he lit the side of the bowl with the lighter, and with the other hand, he held in place on the coffee table. He put his mouth on the mouth piece, glancing briefly at Karkat, and breathed deeply. Karkat was slightly impressed with the other's lung capacity.  
Gamzee took his mouth off the bong and turned his head away from Karkat to breathe out all the smoke that had accumulated in his lungs. He looked over at Karkat and held out the bong, offering Karkat a hit.

"I've never smoked before. Especially on a bong," Karkat stated, staring at the bong in Gamzee's outstretched hand.

"I can fix that up right quick," Gamzee smiled and took another hit on the bong. Gamzee scooted closer to Karkat, small whisks of smoke escaping his mouth and nose as he spoke, "Open your mouth and don't fight the smoke."

Karkat did as he was told, opening his mouth slightly. Gamzee leaned closer to Karkat, his lips closing on the other's as he breathed the smoke into him. Gamzee soon pulled away, telling Karkat to hold in the smoke for a little.

"You should be feeling relaxed real motherfuckin' soon," he grinned and took another hit as Karkat breathed out the smoke. They continued this for quite a bit, Gamzee taking a hit then breathing it into Karkat. Just as promised, Karkat started feeling the high of the weed.

Once the bowl was cashed, Gamzee packed up the bong and leaned against the back of the couch, completely relaxed. Karkat decided to strike while the iron was hot.  
"So why do you have those weird fucking scars on your face?" He asked, pointing lazily to the aforementioned scars.

"That's a long fuckin' story my bro," Gamzee laughed lightly, turning towards Karkat slightly.

"We've got time to kill," Karkat shrugged as he felt the fabric of the couch.

"Well, there was a cool cat I used to know. A feisty motherfucker who didn't get along too well with me. I guess I struck one too many nerves and she pounced. Gave me these fuckers to remind me of what I did. Funny enough, the she's actually real good bros with my roommate. I try my motherfuckin' best to show that I'm sorry for what I done did, but I think she still holds a grudge. Don't blame her one bit, though," Gamzee's hand came up to touch at his scars more than once during his story, running his fingers over the scarred tissue.

"What'd you do to her that made her go off like that?" Karkat asked.

Gamzee sighed and looked down at his lap. "I've done some things. Some things I'm not motherfuckin' proud of. Things I'd rather leave behind," he whispered, playing with the hem of his shirt.

There was a moment of silence before Gamzee looked up at Karkat. "What about you? What's goin' on with those miraculous eyes of yours?" He asked.

Now it was Karkat's turn to look away and rub his hands together. "Everyone in my family has red eyes. Or, at least on my dad's side. He says it was a mutation that happened with his great grandfather or some shit and it just stuck. In elementary and middle school, a lot of kids would call me a mutant and laugh, and it fucked up my self-esteem pretty bad. Then I met two of my best friends, Sollux and Terezi. Sollux has heterochromia, so he was bullied pretty bad too, and we kinda bonded over that. Terezi's blind, so she couldn't really tell what my eye color was, but she did lick my eyes for some fucking reason and found out that way. Both of them are pretty fucked up, and I guess we bonded over that," Karkat smiled at the tangent he went off on.

They continued to talk, giving bits and pieces about their lives, things that weren't exactly secret, but they didn't really tell anyone. Like how Gamzee had been struggling with addiction for six years, ever since he was 14. He was abused by his father and abandoned by his mother, which lead to his eventual addiction.

Karkat told about how he was bullied, not only because he had "mutant eyes" but because his family lived in poverty for most of his life. He was only able to help him get out of their poor state when him and his brother got jobs to help his single dad pay the bills. The only reason he's able to go to college is because he got a full-ride scholarship thanks to his high grades.

Both of them had pretty bad lives, but Karkat was surprised at how Gamzee turned out. Instead of shutting people out and yelling at everyone (like Karkat), Gamzee was patient and loved to talk with people. He was easy to smile and so cheerful around other people that you wouldn't expect him to have gone through such traumatic experiences as a child.  
They continued to talk and talk and talk and talk...

 

Karkat isn't sure when he went to sleep, but he woke up on the couch, his feet tangled with Gamzee's. He wasn't sure what time it was, but judging from how dark it was outside the windows, it must be late.  
Karkat looked down at Gamzee. His head was hanging off the arm of the couch, his mouth slightly open as he snored. Karkat smiled. He was happy like this.  
Karkat turned over and went back to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me at [supertrashwrite](http://supertrashwrite.tumblr.com/) and send me prompts


End file.
